How did I miss Mary Beard's entry on November 30th under the title 'Let them learn Latin'? It is not only worth reading itself, but has drawn a number of very interesting comments. Read it here.

I'll reproduce here just one short paragraph which mentions That Book.

Indeed our success on this score is evident by the fact that Harry Mount’s little Christmas guide to learning Latin is selling at the rate of 1000 copies a week. (Many of us are green with envy . . . if all it took was re-writing Kennedy’s Latin Primer interspersed with some blokeish humour, why didn’t we get there first?)

The other piece is about the chance now given to victims of crime to tell the court of the effect the crime has had on their lives. Whether you agree with her or not (I'm not sure that I do), Mary combines full sympathy and understanding for victims with her argument that they should not be given a place in the court proceedings. She compares Greek and Roman court practice with this latest development. I guess that Socrates would be on Mary's side. He refused to parade his children in rags at his own trial, and would surely not have made similar appeals to the jury if he had ever been a prosecutor.